Falling Stars
by Kade Riggs
Summary: Cloud and Tifa get seperated when war breaks out three years after Advent Children. Years later they find themselves together again and forced to deal with their past love and loss. Meanwhile Reno and Rude accidentally resurrect more than one ghost.
1. Prologue

AN: This story is about Cloud, mostly based on the events in Advent Children. Although the story doesn't start out in Cloud's perspective, it gets to him soon.

* * *

"Tell me what you hold precious, so I can take it away," the man said.

He was tall, with long silver hair and an even longer sword.

"I'll never be just a memory, Cloud," he whispered, a cruel smirk gracing his features.

His eyes were hard. That's all I remember about the moment when he impaled me on his sword. He had green eyes that never left mine. His irises elongated unnaturally.

I tried to tell him I wasn't the man he meant to kill. He'd mistaken me for someone else.

My murderer withdrew his sword from my midsection and walked away, leaving me to slump to the ground. I could hardly breathe and I felt cold. So cold.

Another man, tall and blonde, walked past me and stopped briefly, looking down.

"Forgive me," he whispered, before moving on, turning his back on me.

"No, please," I gasped, reached after him with one bloodied hand. "Please, don't leave me."

* * *

I sighed when I opened my eyes and found myself safe in bed, consciously forcing my tensed muscles to relax.

The nightmare faded quickly from my memory, but I was too sleepy to care. I rolled over to wrap an arm around my girlfriend's warm body. I took a minute to take comfort in her presence before glancing over at the clock.

We'd be landing in a few hours.

I sighed at that thought too before my eyes closed and I drifted back to sleep.

* * *

" Reno, Rude!" Marlene shouted, her eyes lighting up. She ran to them through the space port crowd, embracing the red-head, and then the bald guy.

I stood back and watched, sighing.

I'd started to wonder if any of this was a good idea. Leaving behind the planet I'd grown up on and the life I'd had.

I scoffed at that thought. Life? What life? Making a living as a SeeD mercenary until I lost my mind, and got thrown out of Garden by a guy I used to think was my friend? Until I'd met Marlene a year before I'd been a drunk, hardly scraping by, mourning the death of my mother and the loss of the girl I'd thought I loved.

I'd become jaded and broken.

Mar was still slowly putting me back together.

"You sure did grow up, kiddo," the red-head said, grinning and shooting my girl a wink.

The bald guy grunted agreement.

I growled under my breath.

Marlene turned, motioning me over enthusiastically. "Come on, Zell, don't be shy. The flirt here is Reno, and that's Rude. I've known them since I was a little girl."

I stepped forward, accepting the hand presented by Reno.

"So, you're the man we've heard so much about," he said, leaning closer. "I can't wait until you meet her father. Never mind the rest of her family."

"He'll be fine," Mar admonished, rolling her eyes and smiling, looping her arms around mine.

She liked this Reno.

I wondered if she considered him family or a crush.

The red-head didn't seem to notice my critical stare. He took a step or two backward, still chuckling.

"Chopper's ready whenever you are, Marlene. The sooner we get going, the sooner you'll reach your little family reunion."

The three of us followed after him, Mar still hanging onto my arm.

* * *

"That's the place where my godfather defeated Sephiroth," Marlene shouted over the roar of the chopper's rotor. She was pointing out a gigantic impression in the earth that reminded me a little of the place where I had helped to defeat the sorceress Edea on my home world.

"He must've been one hell of a fighter," I shouted back.

She nodded grimly, sucked into memories of a time and place where I couldn't touch her. I tried to anyway. I took her hand and laced my fingers through hers so she'd know that when she came back I'd be there, waiting.

A number of minutes passed and the crater in the ground slowly began to move away beneath us.

All of a sudden I found myself nearly unseated.

"Holy shit!" Reno yelled, pulling the chopper around, banking sharply.

I grabbed Marlene, pulling her close so we wouldn't fly into the wall. When I finally got a chance to sneak a glance out the window I saw the cause of our sudden turbulence. A gigantic bird-like monster had attacked our craft.

My stomach bottomed out as I realized there was only one way we'd be reaching the ground.

The hard way.

I strapped Marlene in, snapping the belts into place. They restrained her from getting up when I rose and grabbed the door handle, throwing it open and nearly falling backward at the sudden rush of air. I braced myself, pushing forward and immediately looking down.

"Kid, don't do it! Don't do it, it's crazy!" Reno yelled.

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself.

"Kid!"

"Zell!"

I jumped out the door, clear of the chopper. When I finally managed to turn in the air and look up I got an eyeful of the bird bearing down on me.

A tear flowed from my eye, probably from the wind whipping my face as I plummeted faster and faster.

"I love you, Mar," I whispered, gathering my strength.

My body started to feel cold. So, so, cold.


	2. Tell Me What

AN: I know this starts out a little confusing, but things will clear up soon. If anyone doesn't get the Final Fantasy 8 references, let me know.

* * *

Tifa sat with Marlene in the girl's old bedroom for hours, trying to comfort her. Cloud watched stoically from the doorway.

Barrett was on his way. So were a number of the others.

He walked out and down the stairs, unable to stay in the same room with his wife and sobbing godchild. He'd let them down enough times to know when it was no use trying to help.

Just outside the bar he found Reno and Rude leaning against the alley walls, speaking in hushed tones until they noticed his presence.

"Hey, it's the Cloud-man. How've you been, Spiky?" Reno asked, giving him the double gun with his index fingers and thumbs.

Cloud shot him a glare. Didn't anything get that dude down?

"Tell him," Rude said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Ah, tell him what?" Reno asked, his smile dropping just slightly.

"About the kid. Tell him what happened after the kid jumped."

Reno grinned, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. "Oh, yeah! I almost forgot. Man, it was incredible. That Zell guy must've packed some serious juice. I'm talking your level, Cloud. I couldn't see where he went, but the whole sky clouded over and ice spikes fell from the sky. He made the thing attacking us into a shish kabob. Froze it solid and made it explode. It was great. He totally saved our asses!"

Cloud nodded, turning his gaze to the ground and then toward the setting sun.

"Sounds like Marlene picked a good one. Too bad you two losers let him die like that," he said.

Reno sighed and his whole body seemed to sag a little, the stress and wear finally showing on his face. "Ah, come on, man. Don't bust my balls like that. I told the guy not to jump. Didn't I, Rude?"

"Ain't like you can talk, Cloud," Rude chimed in, turning to walk inside, Reno following behind him.

His shoulders slumped when they were out of view. Rude was right. He couldn't talk.

Sure he'd come back when he heard the news. The planet had finally stabilized. It was possible to live there again. Still didn't change the fact that he'd left for so many years. He and Tifa had gone their separate ways after the planet was declared uninhabitable, and after the mad panic that ensued. Never mind the war.

_I will never be just a memory. _

_Tell me what is precious to you. So I can take it away. _

Sephiroth. Why did that voice never stop haunting him?

There was a time in his life when he thought he held everything precious. Tifa, their friends, the orphans living with them. He'd never known he'd find something that would dwarf everything else in comparison. Something he loved so much it destroyed him when he lost it.

Not just him. Tifa too.

He used to think that nothing could ever drive her away from him. Nothing could make it unbearable for her to see his face, wake up next to him every morning. She'd always stood at his side, no matter what.

He was wrong. So wrong.

She'd gone with the Turks. Traveled far and wide to find the greatest martial arts teachers in the galaxy and become strong again.

He'd gone with Cid and Red for a while, dying a little more each day.

Because of their travel at relativistic speeds through space only a few years had passed for him and Tifa. It had shocked him a little to see Marlene as a full grown adult in her early twenties and not the pre-teen adolescent he'd expected. She too had traveled through space, but not extensively. Denzel, the boy who was Marlene's age when they were children, had aged six years past her.

Cloud grimaced a little. He couldn't think of them as children anymore, no matter how much he wanted to.

He didn't have a motorcycle, so he started to walk toward the outskirts of Midgar. He walked across the planes toward the place where an old, rusted Buster sword was stuck in the ground. A lonely grave in the middle of nowhere.

It was past dark when he finally reached that place where he'd spent so many hours soaking in regret.

He knelt down next to the sword and touched the groves in it, where it had been damaged in the fights it had endured. A red ribbon flew from its handle for Aerith.

"I'm not strong enough to save anyone," he told them, wondering if they could hear him.

Even if they couldn't, they must already know.

Zack. Aerith.

His son...

So many times he'd been so strong, held so much power in his hands--but they all died anyway.


End file.
